New crop of talent is bringing downtown back to life

A new crop of talent is bringing downtown area back to life

By Sarah Rufca

Updated 1:02 pm, Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Photo: Nick De La Torre, Staff

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Joshua Martinez, from left, Ryan Rouse, Justin Burrows, Brad Moore, Hank Fasthoff, Brian Fasthoff, Steve Hannigan, David Coffman and Matt Wommack plan to open bars and restaurants on or near the 300 block of Main in downtown. less

Joshua Martinez, from left, Ryan Rouse, Justin Burrows, Brad Moore, Hank Fasthoff, Brian Fasthoff, Steve Hannigan, David Coffman and Matt Wommack plan to open bars and restaurants on or near the 300 block of ... more

Joshua Martinez, from left, David Coffman and Matt Wommack are planning a menu that will focus on traditional ramen recipes and other surprises for Goro & Gun, which will open in a building at 306 Main that was built in 1908. less

Joshua Martinez, from left, David Coffman and Matt Wommack are planning a menu that will focus on traditional ramen recipes and other surprises for Goro & Gun, which will open in a building at 306 Main that ... more

Photo: Nick De La Torre, Staff

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Hank Fasthoff, left and Brian Fasthoff, will be opening Batanga, a new tapas restaurant with a patio, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013, in Houston. ( Nick de la Torre / Chronicle )

Hank Fasthoff, left and Brian Fasthoff, will be opening Batanga, a new tapas restaurant with a patio, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013, in Houston. ( Nick de la Torre / Chronicle )

Photo: Nick De La Torre, Staff

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Steve Hannigan will open Clutch City Squire at 410 Main in a building rumored to have been a brothel.

Steve Hannigan will open Clutch City Squire at 410 Main in a building rumored to have been a brothel.

Photo: Nick De La Torre, Staff

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Okra Charity Saloon in downtown Houston.

Okra Charity Saloon in downtown Houston.

Photo: Marc Brubaker, Photographer

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Steve Hannigan explains that his new bar was at one time a brothel and that the large sliding metal door used to connect it to the bank that was next door. Photographed, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013, in downtown Houston. ( Nick de la Torre / Chronicle ) less

Steve Hannigan explains that his new bar was at one time a brothel and that the large sliding metal door used to connect it to the bank that was next door. Photographed, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013, in downtown ... more

Photo: Nick De La Torre, Staff

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New crop of talent is bringing downtown back to life

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Aside from the occasional whoosh of a MetroRail train going by, there's not a lot happening around the corner of Main and Congress on the north end of downtown. Empty storefronts hold the remnants of bars and clubs that clogged the street a decade ago, when the Super Bowl and burgeoning public transit brought Main Street to its most recent, though short-lived, heyday as an entertainment district.

That's something that a group of young but influential restaurateurs and bar owners is trying to change. In the next two months, no less than four new concepts are opening within a block of this intersection, transforming a dead zone into a culinary and nightlife destination.

"We had a conversation two years ago at Warren's Inn, and the gist of it was that individually we could fail but together we could make something really cool," said Brad Moore, a co-owner of Grand Prize Bar in Montrose and Big Star Bar in the Heights. "What we wanted was a place where we could all park and walk to each other's businesses, and I don't think we could have picked a better block."

The first step was the December opening of the Original OKRA Charity Saloon, a nonprofit bar at 924 Congress run by 22 local service-industry vets, including Moore, his Grand Prize partner Ryan Rouse and Joshua Martinez, the owner of popular food truck the Modular.

Those three also have joined up to create Goro & Gun, a chef-driven restaurant and bar opening in March around the corner from OKRA at 306 Main.

Martinez, along with executive chef David Coffman and sous chef Matt Wommack, is creating a menu that will focus on traditional ramen recipes, including making their own noodles in house. But they insist that ramen is just the beginning. The menu also will include soup dumplings, a dish Martinez says he can't find done well in Houston, as well as "the best damn fried chicken in the whole damn city," plus a chef's table where Coffman can stretch his culinary muscles, putting out anything from shrimp and grits to bycatch and offal dishes from Goro & Gun's in-house butchering.

"For a quick downtown lunch, there's going to be a lot of noodles, but we've got three talented guys in the kitchen, and at night, this is their lab," said Rouse.

The 1,500-square-foot space is dominated by the bar, which runs the length of the restaurant and will offer wine, beer, cold sake and Martinez's signature craft cocktail infusions.

"In New York, I would go to these little sake dens, and I loved it. A dark, fun place, get a small bite and drink great sake by the glass, the pitcher or by the full bottle. That's the style I wanted here," Martinez said.

The denlike feel is accomplished with exposed brick walls with bar shelves stretching upward toward the high ceilings and accessible via library ladder. Martinez also is playing up the historic feel of the building, which dates to 1908, by polishing up the original honeycomb floor tiles and adding architectural elements from the soon-to-be-demolished 1940s-era Houston Club building.

"The downtown atmosphere really lends to the atmosphere of this building," Martinez said. "We would never have been able to do this anywhere else in Houston. There is no such thing."

Next door to the entrance of Goro & Gun, a narrow staircase leads to the second-floor space that will soon house Justin Burrows' Bad News Bar at 308 Main. Burrows, part of the opening team at Anvil Bar & Refuge, had already decided to partner with Rouse and Moore on a modern American cocktail bar when they found the location during a tour of available spaces with the Downtown District.

"The appointment was at 5, I showed up at 4:45, walked in the door and said, 'I'm here first! This is ours!' " Moore said.

What Moore was looking at was a 1,700-square-foot, built-out space with a large wooden bar, faux antique chandeliers and a large wrought-iron balcony overlooking Main Street. "The space looked like what the concept needed to be," he said.

In lieu of stripping the plastered walls down to the original brick, Burrows is adding wallpaper for a slightly more upscale vibe. Classic cocktails, $2 bottles of Lone Star, even piña coladas will be on the menu.

"More than anything, I'm trying to make this the bar that I would want to come to," he said. "I really want to do a down-to-earth, casual, approachable, fun cocktail bar with no bull and no suspenders and no curly mustaches."

Down the street, Steve Hannigan was less impressed with the Super Bowl-era club remnants inside his bar, opening asClutch City Squire in late February at 410 Main. He's removed the black lights and the platforms from where go-go dancers would gyrate, although the red light by the front entrance to the two-story space is staying as a tribute to the building's history.

"It was right next to the State National Bank building, and rumor has it they used to run it as a brothel," Hannigan said. In addition to the lights, the building's allegedly sordid past is marked by a giant iron door that looms over the staircase, a secret passage for hustling customers in and out of the establishment through the bank.

"I think everything works really well together," said Hannigan, who describes his bar as an industrial-modern take on the saloon. "Justin's place, I think it's beautiful. If you want to take a girl somewhere to impress her, take her there, but you'll probably meet her at my place."

The effort to bring new businesses back downtown has been years in the making, said Angie Bertinot, director of communications at the Houston Downtown Management District. In addition to leading tours of available historic properties, the district also acted as a facilitator between potential tenants and landlords and in some cases offered grants to help new businesses improve the downtown streetscape.

"We're excited because we feel like this is finally the time to start positioning the historic district as a destination. We've been on the edge with great places like Warren's Inn and La Carafe, but with these new additions, people can really come and hang out and have a ton of options for dining and entertainment," Bertinot said. "These guys are established businesspeople, but at the same time they are very fun and very cool, so it's a great fit."

"It's a really killer downtown," said Hank Fasthoff, a partner at forthcoming Latin American restaurant Batanga at 908 Congress. "There's plenty of parking, it's just a block away. It's just going to take a little time to change the mind-set."

The 5,000-square-foot Batanga space has a grassy patio and more exposed brick but is brightened by nearly floor-to-ceiling windows. In addition to a varied tapas menu, the restaurant will offer an exotic drinks program, lounge space and live bossa nova music at night and during Sunday brunch, Fasthoff said.

Despite its rocky past, the new owners are optimistic that they can escape the fate of the last wave of bars and clubs that set up shop downtown.

"We'd be lying if we said that wasn't a consideration or that we don't think about that," said Rouse. "We like to say this is either the raddest thing we'll ever do or the biggest screw-up."